Then and now...

The misconception about being happy is: it begins with a search for someone else’s gratification of self. When we seek happiness in others, we slowly lose sight of what ultimately makes us happy; what we need to be fulfilled in the presence of living life. Happiness can manifest itself through others, but will not absorb our flaws nor needs if self-doubt and uncertainty resides in our soul. Empowering your journey to self-happiness, happens through belief of deep faith and hope that inspires you to take on the challenge of discovering who you are, who you desire to be, and what you need from the people that surround your life and affect your personal livelihood. When you stop trying to be the person that someone else will love, and start with being a person that you canlove- your happiness will become a permanent confidant. The trials and tribulations that you will face in life, will never be the same when you have you and your faith on your side.

The Power of Believing and Healing

1. Start with self-discovery. Relying on others to define who you are will only lead you to who they want you to be. For many people, their definition of self is based on the people that they feel have the most influence and made the most impact on their life. While these influences may serve a very important role in your growth, they are not absolute to your identity. Men and women on both ends of the spectrum, albeit with strong family upbringing and those with non-traditional family upbringings, may rely on what they are most familiar with from their parents or upbringing to paint their personal identity. However, self is discovered though realization that you were created uniquely and with authority to authenticate your life in HIS teachings. Your following of that discovery will never be eye for eye with anyone; as it is specific to you. Thus, life's journeymen declare treasures through important and significant findings on their search for the gifts of life that exude elation powerful enough to uplift their spirit, and give them the strength to share the greatest parts of who they are with others. If this is difficult for you, you very well may be unsure of yourself or unsure of the judgment or lack of acceptance from the people to whom you attempt to extend your heart and mind. Search deeply for your confidence and assurance and not others; do not be conflicted by extraordinary effort to become anything but who you want to be and be intentional through your actions of that discovery.

2. What lies beneath you is what lies within you. You cannot run from who you are; you can only chase the shadow of who you will never truly be without discovering yourself. This is a hard truth. Unrest occurs in two ways: 1.) recognizing that something is right, and 2.) recognizing that something is wrong. The vast majority of the most successful people in life will say they had to take a risk at some point to get to where they are, but they knew from the moment they took the chance that the outcome- the experience- was worth it. This is not a question of the undertakings that will be encountered in the risk, it is a response to avoid making excuses. To know this, you have to know what lies within you and accept who you are as a work in progress. Nonetheless, that work must be for you and in alignment with your faith and not for the pleasure or appeasement of others. Before anyone can better themselves, they have to eliminate self-sabotage and self-judgment. The degree of confidence that we have within our self is a direct response to our awareness and understanding of our flaws and our needs. When people say, “I have my doubts”, that is a true acknowledgement of what they feel. However, for those who are too afraid to open-up and surrender to the challenge of revelation because of fear of losing something that they really never had, you may eventually be the one that leaves you behind. Be cognizant of your agony, confusion, and hurt or pain in your relationships and experiences in life; as these are indications that something important to you is missing. More often than not, you will feel these feelings of unrest within yourself early in any stage or transition in life, if you are struggling to accept or identify what is missing. Do not think of this investigation of people and circumstance with the focus of identifying defective traits, think of it as an investigation to divulge and simply acknowledge “what is and what is not”. You will make a decision on the relevance of this discovery in a response of emotional transfers. A mistaken perception is that anger, frustration, or confusion is the reflection of desire. This is how people begin the stage of losing sight of self, as they try to figure out who they need to be to appease or motivate others to be whom they wish they could be. Intuition is not a gift, it is a synthesis of belief.

3. Embrace the boldness and the audacity of love. This is quite simple: love yourself. No one can give you the kind of love that you can give to yourself or that you can receive from the higher power, because perfection is an imposture of living. Material wealth, fabrication of reality, feeding the hoax of tradition as it is forever changing- those benefits and features of someone else’s fortunes- will only sustain you for a limited time, if they ever really did at all. Do not build a life that is based on those superficial desires. Your ultimate fortune is built by your ownership of your life, and at its best it requires you to be bold and audacious with love; to forget about checking off the proverbial boxes established by people who very well may have never really “got it” for themselves. You can become the wisest person to never live wisely, or you can make the decision to become the best version of you. For that, you will be better to yourself and for the people that you love. But until you accept, grow, and include you in your life, your definition of living will be a faint appearance of what you wish it would be. Surround your heart with people that want to see you be the very best version of you that you can be for you, and not for them. True love of self and others will never flee through challenge and obstacles; it will be unconditionally faithful to you.

Spiritual Wealth

The people and experiences that influence us spiritually stay with us for a lifetime. Being wealthy spiritually is a far greater connection than any ordinary experience. You will know the difference; you will recognize it in yourself when it happens. Whether it last or not, will be up to you. Recognizing what brings you bliss and not being afraid to demand it of yourself and of the people that surround your life, makes all the difference in feeling alive. Perhaps other than the blessing of being a parent, finding when you were best at being yourself, that moment or time when you could look at someone with all-encompassing vulnerability and transparency and say, “This is ME”, is the most rewarding and defining moments in our life. It is the very thing that we do in prayer when we surrender ourselves to HIS ear. Many of us have had the opportunity to have this great favor for a lifetime and chose the path less; that’s just it- less. We are sometimes simpletons for “good enough”, even when we have been blessed with “more than enough”. We ask HIM to be a superlative version of more than good enough for us every day, but we seldom stop to ask our self to be more than good enough, nor do we ask that of the people we love. Why is that? You can dress-up anything unappealing or undesirable with sympathy, disillusion, and false hope and it will walk, talk, and act in your mind as if it is a necessity for you. Just as, anything beautiful can be the most broken and fragile image that you may never see. The things that make us feel healthy and happy are sometimes what we run from the most; while the things that cause us hurt and uncertainty are what we tend to chase. You have a choice to live in a wealth of euphoria; the sacrifice is being faithful to the pursuit of loving yourself first.